Cold Comfort
by symphonyflute
Summary: In "Reefer Madness." Donna never told Kitty and Red that the marijuana for which Hyde got busted was Jackie's, so Red really kicked him out. When he dropped the key on the table, Red never called him back. When he gets sick, who will he turn to for help?
1. Chapter 1

Summary: AU for the episode "Reefer Madness." Donna never told Kitty and Red that the marijuana for which Hyde got busted was Jackie's, so Red went through with kicking Red out. When he dropped the key on the table, Red never called him back.

Disclaimer: I don't own That 70's Show. Nor was I alive in the decade...

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"This is bullcrap, man, it's just…bullcrap. Y'know?"

Hyde nodded nonchalantly. "Whatever."

"No!" Eric pounded his fist on the counter. They were in the fotohut, after hours, moving Hyde in. "There has to be something I can do. We all smoke pot, it isn't fair that you get kicked out to live on the streets."

"We're in fotohut, not at the park Foreman," Hyde pointed out. "I'm a big boy."

"Well, yeah, but…" Eric fidgeted around for a minute. "Where will you sleep?"

"Right here," Hyde pulled a blanket, the same blanket under which he had slept on a cot in the Foreman's basement, out of his bag and tossed it behind the counter.

"Well, uh, where will you shower?"

"School gym."

"And eat? There's no fridge here."

"There's a ** right down the street."

"And how will you afford to eat out for every meal?"

Hyde looked around the room slowly. "Dude. We're in the Fotohut. I work here. Remember?"

"You just have an answer for everything, don't you?"

"Well, you _are_ asking me questions. You're supposed to answer them."

Eric glared at him. "Don't be a dumbass, dumbass. I'm just worried about you. It's cold out, and you're sleeping on the floor of a fotohut. Red shouldn't have kicked you out. It just sucks. It's-"

"Bullcrap. I get it, Foreman, thanks." He sounded annoyed, but his gratitude was real.

"So…" Eric looked around the room. "I guess that's it?"

Hyde nodded. "Looks like it. So I guess I'll see you around…"

"Yeah. There's school, and the **. And you're going to be in my basement every day anyway. So we'll probably see each other at some point."

Hyde, never one for words, nodded again.

Eric didn't know any more stalling techniques, so he simply patted Hyde on the shoulder awkwardly and left.

It was raining.

He pulled the hood of his jacket up over his head, gave the fotohut a last sad look, and walked home.


	2. Chapter 2

I am sorry it took me so long to update! I will try to get them up faster if anyone is interested

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By the time Eric got home, he was soaking wet. His mother fussed over him, taking his wet jacket straight off of his arms, and putting a kettle on the stove to boil water for tea. Red rolled his eyes, called Eric a pansy, and was promptly shooed out of the kitchen by Kitty.

"So you saw Hyde safely home?" Kitty asked as she needlessly adjusted the blanket she had draped over her son's shoulders.

Eric snorted. "What home?"

"Now, now, don't be like that." Kitty laughed nervously. "I'm sure wherever he is staying now is just lovely."

"He's sleeping on the floor of the fotohut, mom, how is that lovely?"

"Well, it's…it's just…HAHA." Kitty patted Eric on the arm and went to pour some water into a cup. Eric rolled his eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes," Red scolded, walking into the kitchen and hitting Eric on the arm. "You show some manners in my house."

"Hyde always showed you manners," Eric mumbled under his breath.

"What was that, boy?" Red demanded.

"Nothing."Red nodded. "No. You know what? Not nothing. It sucks that you kicked Hyde out. Yeah, pot is bad. We get it. But he had nowhere else to go. It's not fair."

"Eric, be quiet," Kitty whispered from the stove.

Red's eyes narrowed. "I took him in off the streets, and he brought that stuff into my house. I gave him a chance and he blew it. End of story."

But Eric was unusually dogged. "So now he's back on the street. Like these last few months didn't happen?"

"Yes."

Eric looked like he was going to argue, but Kitty intervened. She placed a steaming cup of tea in his hands and ushered him to the stairs. "Now you go on up and dry and warm. You don't want to catch a cold. HAHA. "

"Hyde can't get dry and warm," Eric replied, though he sounded less angry and allowed his mother to lead him away.

"Well Steven's not a pansy," Red yelled after him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The next morning, Eric and Donna were sitting on the front steps of the school making out when Donna pulled away suddenly.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "You don't seem like you're very into this."

"Nothing, Eric replied. "I'm totally into this. Making out; Yeah, awesome."

"You're still thinking of Hyde, aren't you?"

"I can't help it."

She smiled. "Trust me, I'm a way better kisser than Hyde."

"That's not what I'm think…Wait. What? How the hell do you know that?"

Donna smiled mysteriously. "I just know. Women's intuition." When Eric didn't smile back, she pushed herself off him and leaned against the wall. "You're really upset. What gives?"

Eric shrugged. "I just have a bad feeling about this whole thing."

"Women's intuition again?" Donna chuckled. At Eric's sour look, she relented. "You don't have to worry about Hyde, Eric. He knows how to take care of himself."

"When his mom left, he resorted to eating ketchup on crackers."

Donna frowned. "I didn't know that."

"I didn't think it was something he would want spread around. But if my parents hadn't taken him in, I don't know what would have happened."

"Maybe your mom will convince Red to take him back in? I mean, it worked the first time."

Eric was unconvinced. "He was really mad when he found Jackie's pot."

The bell rang, and Eric and Donna got up to head to homeroom. Fez, Kelso, and Hyde were already there, sitting in a corner and talking. "What's up?" Kelso asked as the couple joined them.

"We were just talking about things. And stuff. General objects and occurrences." Even Donna had to give Eric an incredulous look at that.

"So, uh, what's up?" Kelso tried again.

"Nothing?"

Donna rolled her eyes. "We were talking about what getting Red to let Hyde come back."

"Donna, shh!"

Hyde sighed. "Foreman, give it up. Red isn't letting me come back."

"But what if we-"

"Drop it, man. I don't want to come back."

Kelso scoffed. "You want to live on the floor of the fotohut forever? Chicks so don't dig guys who don't even have beds."

"Your mom didn't have a problem with it," Hyde joked

"At least I have a mom," Kelso retorted. Followed shortly by "Ow!" as Hyde hit him in the arm.

"Yes Kelso. Don't make fun of Hyde's abandonment so soon after being abandoned again. That is mean," Fez contributed.

Donna nodded. "Yeah. Don't be a dillhole."

Hyde groaned and shifted in his seat in an irritated manner. "Just drop it, all of you. I don't want to-" Hyde broke off and folded his hands over his face. "_Achoo!_"

Eric spun around in his seat in the front. "What was that?"

"Nothing."

Eric was about to argue, but the homeroom teacher chose that moment to walk in and order everyone to "face front and shut up."

And the day was just beginning


End file.
